Newspaper, Marketing Services Company Announce Joint Advertising Insert Distribution Plan LIVONIA, Mich., Aug. 20
LIVONIA, Mich., Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Valassis (NYSE: VCI),
one of the nation's leading media and marketing services companies, and the
Daily Herald, suburban Chicago's largest daily newspaper, today announced a
new partnership with the Chicago Tribune, a leading media company in the
Chicago area. Valassis first entered into an alliance in the Chicago area in
2005 with the Daily Herald. This expanded alliance will provide advertisers
with a new alternative for reaching their audiences in the Chicago market.
Through the alliance, Valassis will combine advertising inserts from its
RedPlum(TM) Direct Mail Package with the Chicago Tribune's midweek ShopLocal
mail program, creating a single, shared offering that will reach 3 million
households weekly in the Chicago market. Through the new program that will
begin in October 2008, Chicago Tribune will continue to deliver preprinted
insert advertising in its Wednesday newspaper edition, and Valassis will
continue to deliver to these Chicago Tribune subscriber households in the
RedPlum Direct Mail Package.
With this partnership, consumers benefit from advertising that is
delivered by trusted, reliable sources -- Chicago Tribune/ShopLocal, Valassis'
RedPlum product and the Daily Herald. In the households where two mail
packages are currently delivered, consumers will now experience the added
convenience of more value-related content in one package. This package will be
co-branded RedPlum-ShopLocal. Similarly, the Daily
Herald-RedPlum-ShopLocal package will continue to be delivered with the
Wednesday edition of the Daily Herald and mailed to non-subscribers in the
Daily Herald market area.
"Combining inserts that go to non-subscribing households will streamline
efficiency while providing richer content and greater consumer appeal," said
Jack Whisler, Chicago Tribune Vice President, Advertising. "At the same time,
both companies will retain their own proprietary targeting options and compete
as before in the marketplace."
"Our alliance with Valassis has allowed us to provide our advertising
customers a broader reach of the Chicago suburbs and that continues to be
important to our success," said Scott Stone, Vice President of Sales and
Marketing for the Daily Herald. "The addition of the Chicago Tribune to our
alliance will heighten the awareness of the RedPlum package, ensuring it will
get even wider market recognition among consumers as the trusted source for
essential advertising messages."
"We are committed to delivering value to consumers, and as a result of
this alliance, we will extend our reach and provide them with the savings
opportunities they seek in an efficient way," said William Blackmer, Valassis
Senior Vice President, Strategic Sourcing. "Our advertisers also benefit from
this joint distribution plan that maximizes response through both the power of
newspaper and the mail. We are very pleased to continue building our
relationship with the Chicago Tribune in this important market."
The new combined midweek mail program will be produced at Tribune Direct
Marketing, a Chicago Tribune Media Group subsidiary located in Northlake, Ill.
The advertising wrap that carries the adverting inserts will be produced and
printed by Valassis.
About Valassis
Valassis is one of the nation's leading media and marketing services
companies, offering unparalleled reach and scale to more than 15,000
advertisers. Its RedPlum media portfolio delivers value on a weekly basis to
over 100 million shoppers across a multi-media platform -- in-home, in-store
and in-motion. Through its newest offering -- redplum.com -- consumers will
find compelling national and local deals online. Headquartered in Livonia,
Michigan with approximately 7,000 associates in 28 states and nine countries,
Valassis is widely recognized for its associate and corporate citizenship
programs, including its America's Looking for Its Missing Children(R) program.
Valassis companies include Valassis Direct Mail, Inc., Valassis Canada,
Promotion Watch, Valassis Relationship Marketing Systems, LLC and NCH
Marketing Services, Inc. For more information, visit http://www.valassis.com
or http://www.redplum.com.
About Chicago Tribune Media Group
Chicago Tribune Media Group publishes the Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago
Tribune as well as related print and interactive media serving Chicagoland
like RedEye, Hoy, Triblocal, chicagotribune.com, chicagosports.com and
metromix.com.
About the Daily Herald
The Daily Herald is the largest daily newspaper for Chicago's suburbs. In
addition to the Daily Herald and dailyherald.com, it also publishes Beep, a
weekly entertainment tabloid and Reflejos, a weekly bilingual newspaper.
Safe Harbor and Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements found in this document constitute "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and
uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results,
performance or achievements of Valassis to be materially different from any
future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following:
price competition from our existing competitors; new competitors in any of our
businesses; a shift in customer preference for different promotional
materials, promotional strategies or coupon delivery methods including as a
result of declines in newspaper circulations; an unforeseen increase in our
paper or postal costs; changes which affect the businesses of our clients and
lead to reduced sales promotion spending including a decrease in marketing
budgets which are generally discretionary in nature and easier to reduce in
the short-term than other expenses; challenges and costs of achieving
synergies and cost savings in connection with the ADVO acquisition and
integrating ADVO's operations may be greater than expected; our substantial
indebtedness, and our ability to incur additional indebtedness, may affect our
financial health; certain covenants in our debt documents could adversely
restrict our financial and operating flexibility; fluctuations in the amount,
timing, pages, weight and kinds of advertising pieces from period to period,
due to a change in our clients' promotional needs, inventories and other
factors; our failure to attract and retain qualified personnel may affect our
business and results of operations; a rise in interest rates could increase
our borrowing costs; the outcome of ADVO's pending shareholder lawsuits;
possible governmental regulation or litigation affecting aspects of our
business; and general economic conditions, whether nationally or in the market
areas in which we conduct business, may be less favorable than expected. We
disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise. Additional risks include, but are not limited to those risk factors
described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007
(the 2007 Form 10-K) and our other filings with the United States Securities
and Exchange Commission ("SEC").
SOURCE Valassis
